Today, shipping goods is a complicated business. Carriers have a finite amount of cargo space, and accordingly, shippers often negotiate with multiple carriers to coordinate the movement of just one container. Typically to limit the uncertainty and cost of moving goods, shippers contract with multiple carriers to provide a predetermined volume of business to each carrier at an agreed upon rate. This gives shippers the flexibility to choose from a number of different carriers to transport goods (for example, shipping directly from Stockholm to New York, rather than through an intermediate location) and increases the likelihood of moving a container when the shipper needs the container moved while guaranteeing individual carriers a volume of business. In practice, a shipper sequentially contacts carriers to check availability. If one carrier doesn't meet the shipper's desires, the shipper then contacts another contracted carrier. For example, refrigeration may be required and only certain carriers may handle refrigerated goods, the shipper may negotiate with only those contracted carriers that provide refrigeration. Even if the carrier may handle refrigerated cargo, they may not have the cargo space available to move the goods by a given day. Accordingly, even if the shipper and carriers have executed a contract prior to negotiations to move goods, shippers are still effectively required to negotiate with multiple carriers when securing the transport of cargo.
Since shippers typically contract with multiple carriers, the shipper is required to learn and understand a variety of different carrier idiosyncrasies. The differences between carriers is compounded as each carrier attempts automation and/or direct booking over the internet. Each carrier booking system (or platform) may be different in the look and feel as well as in the process that one requests the transport of goods. This forces each shipper to learn each carrier's platform to effectively and efficiently book a shipment of goods. The entire process is both confusing and time consuming for shippers. Carriers are then faced with incorrect or irreconcilable booking reports leading to more lost resources.
Freight forwarders add yet another level to this complicated business. Freight forwarders generally coordinate the transportation of goods on behalf of the shippers. For example, if the shipper desires goods be shipped from Chicago to Tokyo, the freight forwarder, on behalf of the shipper, negotiates and/or coordinates with the carriers to arrange for the goods to be moved. Essentially, the freight forwarders provide shippers with a service and generally do not move the goods themselves. Thus, freight forwarders provide shippers with an alternative to coordinating transportation of goods with the carriers. Although, freight forwarders provide shippers with a valuable service, they also create inefficiency and increase shipping costs for shippers as the cost for the service of the forwarders is billed to the shippers.
Biasing results in yet another inefficiency. Forwarders may receive incentives to direct business to certain carriers over others. Also, as the complexity of the shipping business creates a desire for both shippers and freight forwarders to contract with certain carriers, this desire naturally creates a bias towards the contracted carriers. For example, if a shipper wants to move goods from Detroit to Spokane, the shipper may negotiate with a contracted carrier which only moves goods directly to Seattle. A second carrier would be needed to complete the transport from Seattle to Spokane, thus, requiring an additional leg to move the goods to Spokane. However, if the shipper wasn't biased towards the contracted carriers, the goods may have been shipped directly to Spokane using a non-contracted carrier. Accordingly, shippers or freight forwarders may be creating inefficiencies by not using all available resources.
Since shippers or freight forwarders typically move goods using a variety of carriers, tracking and tracing goods across different carriers is also costly. Because shippers or freight forwarders often coordinate transportation of goods with multiple carriers, they are required to learn how to track and trace goods according the specific carrier's platform. Since shippers may have hundreds of containers being shipped by many different carriers at any given time and want to know the status and related info for their shipments, both shippers and carriers devote large amounts of resources to tracking and tracing containers. It is not uncommon for carriers to devote an entire workgroup to handling phone calls from shippers requiring information on the location of their goods. A consolidated system is needed that permits shippers to track shipments from a variety of carriers. Also, a system is needed that permits tracking of a shipment across multiple carriers.
In recent years developers have used the internet to create virtual marketplaces that bring together buyer and sellers, run negotiations and give companies and their suppliers the ability to readily share information. Some attempts have been made to reduce the cost to the shipper by using the internet. One attempt was to give carriers the ability to post published rates and discount information for land, sea and air bearing cargo vessels allowing customers to evaluate prices prior to booking. Another attempt to use the internet, give shippers the ability to receive a plurality of bids from a plurality of participating cargo transportation entities. These systems merely identify the cost of doing business with a select carrier and no more. This does not solve the problem of having to use multiple carrier platforms to submit the booking request to different carriers. This also does not permit easy exchange of goods between carriers where multiple carriers are used for a single shipment.
Finally, warehousing goods, transporting goods, customs brokerage and trade finance are complicated pieces of a very complicated business. Accordingly, a need exists for a more efficient system for handling logistics and transportation of goods.